


Cover Up

by raphaelsantiagosavedhimself



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, Clizzy - Freeform, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Tattoo, but one mention of a needle, no graphic description of getting a tattoo, tattoo artist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:45:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6907849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raphaelsantiagosavedhimself/pseuds/raphaelsantiagosavedhimself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clary is asked to design a tattoo to cover up Isabelle's tattoo of an ex's name</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cover Up

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on my tumblr

She had no appointments for another few hours, so Clary sat at the desk in the reception, doodling in her sketchbook. She loved her job. She’d loved her job before she even _had_ the job. She had always loved wiping the patronising smirk off people’s faces when they said, ‘What’s the point of art college? You’ll never get to _do_ anything with it,’ and she replied with, ‘Actually, I want to be a tattoo artist.’

She especially loved her job on days like today, when tall, beautiful girls with elbow-length ebony hair came into the studio. Being the only person currently at the reception desk, the girl made her way straight over to Clary, her high-heeled boots clicking loudly on the polished wooden floor. There was so much confidence about her that Clary couldn’t help but stare.

‘I’d like to book an appointment, please,’ the girl said.

Clary cleared her throat loudly, putting down her pencil and trying to act professional. In truth, she felt more than a little flustered. She girl leaned casually against the desk, one hand spread flat across the desktop so that Clary could see her long nails, the same scarlet as her lipstick.

‘Do you have a particular day you’d prefer?’ Clary asked, opening up the log book and scanning the entries for available days.

‘Oh, just whenever you have the time.’ The girl waved a dismissive hand. ‘The thing is…’ Now she looked a little uncomfortable. ‘Do you design tattoos here, too?’

‘For an extra fee, yes.’

‘I have this tattoo I…sort of…regret,’ the girl said. ‘I was wondering if I could get it covered over?’

‘Let’s see it.’

The girl sighed, as if prepared for the worst, and removed the leather jacket she was wearing. Flipping her hair from one shoulder to the other, she turned so that the side of her left arm was visible to Clary, where the name ‘ _Meliorn’_ was tattooed in elaborate black script.

Clary studied it for a moment and then said, ‘Shouldn’t be too hard to cover over. It’s small and a very basic design, it should be pretty simple. The only problem is the colour. When you cover over an old tattoo, the ink of the new tattoo and the old tattoo mix together, so the black ink will the make the ink of the new tattoo darker.’

‘You can still do it though, right?’ She looked a little desperate.

‘Sure!’ Clary said quickly. ‘But it’ll need to be designed in a way that will have a black or dark colour directly over the old tattoo. The new tattoo will need to be bigger, too.’

‘That’s okay, as long as it can actually be done.’

‘Do you have anything in mind for the cover up?’

The girl ran her hands through her hair, twisting it around her fingers. ‘Honestly, I have no idea.’ Then she looked down at the desk and spotted Clary’s sketchbook. She raised an eyebrow. ‘Busy day?’

Clary blushed. She had been doodling designs of flowers and vines. Just rough sketches, nothing special. She was about to close the sketchbook, but the girl placed her hand on it and pulled it towards her, a curious expression on her face.

‘Can I have something like this?’ she asked. ‘Would this work?’

Clary, astounded, stared at her for a few seconds. No one had ever asked for her artwork before. She had designed plenty of tattoos for people, but no one had ever asked for anything she’d drawn just because she felt like drawing it.

‘Sure! Of course!’ she said, unable to keep the smile from her face. ‘I’ll have to work on it a lot, figure out how to design it to cover up the old tattoo, which colours to use, things like that. I can have it ready in a week, if you want to schedule your appointment for around then.’

‘Any time in a week is fine by me.’

Clary scanned the log book again. ‘Next Monday, one o’clock?’

The girl nodded agreement and then said, ‘Isabelle Lightwood.’

Clary jotted the name down in the log book and then said, ‘Clary Fray,’ and extended her hand to the girl.

They shook hands. Clary had never shaken hands with a customer before. She’d never had a customer like Isabelle before.

* * *

Clary worked hard on the design all week. She’d taken a photograph of Isabelle’s tattoo as well as getting a tracing of it directly from her arm, so she could work out the design and scale and colour of the new tattoo. She scrapped so many different ideas for it, always returning to her rough doodles in the sketchbook. Those were what Isabelle had liked, so it had to be similar to that. When she was finally done, what she had was a round design. The centre was made up blacks and dark greens and was the part of the tattoo that would cover the old tattoo. It was the twisting stems of all the flowers, interlocking together in complicated patterns. The outside were the flowers themselves, all pinks and purples and blues, with small splashes of shocking scarlet. All colours she thought would look good on Isabelle. Although, every colour probably looked good on Isabelle.

She was more excited than she would admit to anyone when she went into work on Monday. She’d been looking forward to seeing Isabelle again for a week.

Isabelle was right on time too. When Clary showed her the design, she was more anxious than she usually was when showing a customer the tattoo she’d designed. She didn’t just want Isabelle’s approval of the tattoo, she wanted Isabelle’s approval of _her_.

Isabelle’s face lit up when she saw it. Clary thought she could look at Isabelle all day when she looked like that. She wanted to burn the image of Isabelle’s wide, dark eyes and red lips and perfectly shaped eyebrows into the back of her eyelids so that she could draw it later. She wanted to know exactly what shade to use for Isabelle’s skin, for her eyes, for her hair. And she knew she’d never get it right. Isabelle was a masterpiece that could never be replicated.

‘If you don’t like any of the colours, I can change them,’ Clary said. ‘The middle will need to stay the same because it needs to hide your old tattoo, but the flowers can be any colour you want.’

‘No,’ Isabelle said. ‘I don’t want to change anything. It’s perfect.’

* * *

Clary was relieved she’d always had a steady hand, because if she hadn’t it definitely would have been shaking now. She didn’t want to screw this up. She usually thought nothing of it when she was tattooing someone, becoming so focused that she completely forgot it was a tattoo at all, and not just another drawing in her sketchpad. But now she was constantly aware of Isabelle. Isabelle’s breathing, Isabelle’s smile, Isabelle’s small comments every now and then. She didn’t seem to find the needle painful and she wasn’t squeamish about it either, watching the whole time as Clary applied the tattoo stencil and then began lining it and colouring it.

‘What was it anyway?’ Clary asked. ‘Bad breakup?’

‘The worst.’

She didn’t seem too broken up though, so Clary allowed herself to smile, not taking her eyes off what she was doing as she carefully coloured over Meliorn’s name. ‘My mom always told me she didn’t care how many tattoos I got, as long as I never tattooed anyone’s name on myself.’

‘My mom said the same,’ Isabelle said. ‘Which is exactly why I did it.’

Clary laughed.

‘It seems to be working in my favour so far though.’ She spoke casually, and Clary wasn’t sure what she meant. She glanced over at Isabelle as she was changing colours and saw Isabelle watching her with a mischievous smile. ‘What days do you work, anyway? I suddenly have the urge to get a lot more tattoos.’

‘At least let me finish this one before you start planning your next one,’ Clary said. Her heart beat a little faster.

‘I’m not even entirely sure I’ve learned my lesson,’ Isabelle said airily. ‘Clary is a nice name. It would make a nice tattoo.’

Clary couldn’t wipe the smile from her face now as she coloured in a red rose on Isabelle’s arm. ‘I won’t tattoo it on you, but I will give you my number if you want it?’

‘Shame. So unadventurous,’ Isabelle sighed. ‘But I’ll take you up on that anyway.’

* * *

Isabelle paid for her tattoo and then carefully put her leather jacket on. Clary scribbled her phone number into her sketchbook, on the same page that had the original flower sketches on. She tore out the whole page and handed it over to Isabelle, who folded it up and put it in her pocket as if it was a receipt.

‘I will definitely be calling you,’ Isabelle said. ‘And possibly booking another tattoo.’ She flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked out, hips swaying and head held high.

Clary watched her go, still smiling. She felt like everything she doodled during spare hours at work now was really going to be an idea for a tattoo that would look good on Isabelle, even if it wasn’t actually intended to be.


End file.
